142 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



" Might I ask how 1 " I replied, bringing myself to 

 anchor in an easy -chair. 



" You went too near the deer that's all ; and 

 they winded you." 



" Pardon me, madam," I rejoined, acrimoniously ; 

 "they did not." 



" Why, I saw them bolt," she said. " When you 

 disappeared over ' the shoulder,' I kept my eye on 

 the deer (through the telescope, of course), and not 

 five minutes afterwards up jumped the big stag." 



"The what?" I said, imitating the animal in 

 question and jumping on my legs. 



" The big stag," she continued, " and the one below 

 him, looked in your direction, and were off ; then the 

 deer lower down bolted too." 



Now, as the reader has no doubt ere this dis- 

 covered, we hadn't an idea that those two stags were 

 there at all. They were not visible from the lodge 

 when we started, nor from any point of the route we 

 took to reach the top of the hill. They winded us 

 without doubt, although we could not have been 

 within three-quarters of a mile of them. 1 The other 

 deer, I am confident, did not wind us ; but seeing 

 the stags above startled, the hint was quite sufficient, 



1 MacRae puts a mile as about the limit of a deer's scenting 

 power ; but, as he says, a great deal depends on the nature of 

 the ground, and how the wind is blowing. If steadily and 

 strongly, with nothing to interrupt its passage, you would 

 not, I am sure, be safe at that distance. 



